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Battle of Pallavia
The battle of Pallavia occurred in 2015 AF, and was the first major battle in the Emundationem ex Sclopetis, and resulted in the utter annihilation of the Rilfe's main fleet, and marked the end of it's heretical uprising. The battle lasted for 4 days, ending in ultimate victory for the inquisition The Initial Assault The Divine Armada left Tertha in the early months of 2015 AF, and set a direct course towards Pallavia, the center of all known Rifle military activities across the Empire. Due to his high position within the Rifles, which he had gained through 2 years of intrigue, Connor Grafton had informed The Rifle's leader: BY THE INQUISITION, that he was bringing a support fleet in order to help combat the forces House Beats. This ruse allowed the Divine Armada clear passage through Rifle territories to meet with the Rifle's main fleet and Flagship, a prototype Dreadnought dubbed the 'Baker_Class Dreadnought'. Once in the Tertha system, The Inquisition immediately commenced its assault, utilizing the long range ballistics of its Great Beard Dreadnoughts to eliminate the Rifle's defense platforms. With the Pallavia's orbital stations eliminated, the only defense left was the fleet itself and the planetary garrison. As the Divine Armada approached the planet, it launched all of it's strike craft, and began unleashing all of its firepower. The Battle The First Day As the battle commenced, the technologically superior Divine Armada quickly crushed the planet's first line of defense, creating a breach in the Rifle's lines, which Connor Grafton quickly exploited. The breach made left an open path for a small number of ships to drive into the heart of the enemy fleet, which could then engage the Rifle's Baker Flagship. Leading this attack was the one of the Armada's most elite ships, the 'Bearded Vengeance', a Solice class destroyer, being supported by several Bearded Class destroyers and its personal escort of 20 fighter intercepts and 13 bomber strike craft. As this assault pushed through the Rifle fleet, all but one of the Bearded Class destroyers became locked in combat with hostile ships, and were unable to continue their support of the Bearded Vengeance, despite this fact, the commander of the Vengeance, Captain Frederik Von Salt, ordered his ship to continue with the assault, knowing full well that by eliminating the enemy flagship, the Rifle's would lose much of their command structure in orbit. As the Baker flagship came into view, several salvos of torpedoes were launched in the direction of the Bearded Vengeance. At this point, the Vengeance's last remaining escort, Beaded Destroyer 'Wild Goatee' came across the Vengeance's bow, and took the torpedoes in stead of the Vengeance. Although not destroyed, the Goatee could no longer fight, and drifted off into the further reaches of the system, and was later recovered by House Beats upon his arrival. Now with a clear shot at the Baker Flag ship, Frederik Von Salt ordered all torpedoes fired at the Baker's engines, immobilizing it, thus allowing the Bearded Vengeance to swing across the port side of the Baker, and commence broadside attacks. As these volleys continued, Von Salt saw an opportunity arise, to capture the Rifle's leader. With this realization, he ceased firing and harpooned the Baker to his own ship, and dispatched a squad from Seal Team Salt, lead by Pleb Von Salt to retrieve the enemy commander. 6 hours after their insertion, and 15 hours since the battles beginning, Seal Team Salt emerged from the Baker Flagship with its commander: BY THE INQUISITION. At this moment, Von Salt sent them in a shuttle back to the Divine Armada's flagship, where the package would be safer, before recommencing his attack. It was at this moment that the Bearded Vengeance took a hit to its main reactor, causing it to begin a meltdown. Upon receiving news of this, Frederik Von Salt ordered all personnel to abandon ship, and return to the fleet. However, Von Salt himself remained on the ship. Once he had confirmation that all his crew had evacuated, Von Salt rammed the Bearded Vengeance into the hull of the Baker flagship, before detonating his main reactor, creating an explosion that engulfed the Baker flagship, as well as most the Rifle fleet escorting it. Upon seeing this, Connor Grafton ordered the start of the ground assault to commence, and left Connor Von Salt, in charge of his father's fleet to continue the fight for orbital dominance. And so, after nearly 20 hours of combat, the invasion of Pallavia began. Connor Grafton took his flagship down out of orbit, and began the cleansing if the planet's rural areas, whilst deploying the legions of House Shervoine, to secure the cities, beginning with the planet's capitol: New Zion. The Second Day. After the first day of fighting, The Inquisition, led by Connor Grafton, had secured a foothold on the outskirts of New Zion, and had begun the siege of the city. Once his troops had surrounded the city, Shervin Shervoine, leader of the ground forces of the inquisition, ordered his artillery batteries to commence bombardment of the city. On orders from the inquisition to leave no man, woman or child alive, Shervin's plan was to bombard the city for 24 hours with Micro-Nuclear and Chemical shells, before commencing a room to room clearance of the entire city. Meanwhile, in orbit, the battle for naval dominance continued. Although their flagship, as well as many of their elite and veteran officers had been eliminated, the Rifle fleet had regrouped and had gone on the offensive. After witnessing the death of Captain Von Salt, the fleet of Von Salt was demoralized, and began to falter, and just 2 hours into the Rifle counter attack, several vessels from fleet Von Salt has fled the system. Upon receiving news of this , Connor Grafton returned to orbit and recalled the fleet of House Shervoine to help secure the orbital foothold. However this left the ground forces without air support. As the battle continued, the RIfles began to regain their ground, and reinforcements from nearby sectors began arriving. Realizing that was soon to lose the initiative, Connor Grafton ordered his personnal ship, The 'Great-Beard's Fury'; a recently constructed prototype Class Dreadnaught, and one of the largest ship in the Empire, to the front of his forces, and in fulfillment of one of the most valued scriptures, commenced a lone 'glory charge' into the heard of the enemy fleet. Upon seeing this, Connor Von Salt seized the opportunity to rally his fleet, and commence a second charge on the Rifle's Flank. This attack, combined with the power of the Great-Beard's Fury broke the remainder of the Rifle's orbital forces, and with the battle for control of Pallavia's orbit one, Connor Grafton ordered House Von Salt to commence it's attacks on the population hubs of the surface, and accompanied Fleet Shervoine back to the outskirts of New Zion, whilst leaving the Armada in orbit to mop up any surviving hostile ships, and eliminate any reinforcements that may arrive from other sectors. As the forces of Von Salt, led by Connor Von Salt, descended down to the planet, a report came in from the forces at New Zion, that a counter attack had been made by some of the local populous, and that the artillery batteries were under threat of being overran . Not wanting to risk losing his primary siege force, and a large chunk of his ground forces, Connor Grafton once again reached into his prototypes, and Personally deployed with his vanguard, in recently developed X-714 'Beardia's Finest' mechs, and began the 12 hour journey from his flagship's staging area, to the front lines at New Zion, with simple orders to House Shervoine: Hold the line, at all costs. Knowing that when the Inquisition make a request at 'all costs' they mean it, Shervin deployed all his forces to the front line, including reserves and logistics personnel, with the same orders, of holding the line. Shervin himself deployed to the small town of Malrey, just outside the main gates to New Zion, where he and his elite escort would defend. This defense would hold for the night. Until reinforcements arrive the next morning. The Third Day As the sun rose on the third day of the war for Pallavia, the lines of House Shervoine continued to hold. After being under constant assault for 12 hours, Shervin's forces were beginning to thin, and as the chance of holding the line fell and fell, he received word that Connor Grafton had arrived with his mechanized force. Upon hearing this news, Shervin ordered all his units to withdraw beyond the open salt flats that surrounded the city, and in doing so, lure the enemy out of the cover of towns and villages. As Shervin's forces made it into the cover across the flats, the forces of the Rifle defendants proceeded to follow them, believing to have routed the inquisition. However once in the open of the salt flats, large mechanized units emerged from the forests, and began attacking the Rifles. caught in the open, with nowhere to go, the Rifles were easy pickings for House Grafton's mechanized elite, and within an hour, they had completely annihilated the counter attack, and made way once more for the City. Meanwhile, across the planet, the forces of Von Salt had been capturing and purging all other major population hubs, and had quickly taken control of many regions planet-wide. Many of the citizens of Pallavia fled to the confines of New Zion, believing it an unreachable safe haven free from invaders, however, as the sun peaked on the third day, Connor Grafton ordered the assault to begin. Assault of New Zion The defenses of New Zion were extremely formidable, and posed a serious issue for any invading force. It was built high atop a 130 foot plateau, formed by volcanic activities, and was surrounded by a 100 foot wall. Atop the wall were some of the galaxy's most advanced Anti-Air systems, capable for bringing down vast space cruisers, as well as small insertion craft. On the southern side of the city, lay water. Protected by extremely advanced coastal and anti mech guns. This combination of defenses made coming close to the city, yet alone breaching it, nearly impossible. However after being bombarded for nearly 24 hours, the cities defenses had been weakened, allowing for Connor Grafton to plot a decoy, that would cause the defendants to move the surviving defenses, away from one half of the city.